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comment by am_Unition

The success of the Big Lie happened because the people previously benefiting from entrenched power structures are grappling with the fact that they're losing control of American politics and culture. Their legitimate grievances, like the hollowing out of the middle class, manufacturing jobs moving overseas, automation taking away agricultural jobs, etc. have been successfully redirected and inflamed to permit and even require anti-American principles and actions. Emotionally-driven decisions are one fine side effect. Perhaps never before has class warfare so successfully hoodwinked such a huge swath of people into waging cultural warfare against others who should be their allies, if the wealthy class is to remain in check. Honestly you could say the same things about coastal urban democrats, but they're not quite as divorced from reality, and typically less armed and less inclined to political violence. At least for now.

The fact that we're unequipped to handle such an obvious falsehood probably means that the American experiment will fail. We're well into the process. At least you won't feel the need to waste worktime on a Tuesday voting. You'll probably still have the option for quite a few elections, but our ability to effect change through the ballot box will wane from here on out. Not that things have ever been anywhere near ideal in this country, to be fair, but it can get a whole lot worse.

More immediate predictions: I'm still betting on Trump as Speaker of the House from 2023 - 2025 (again, cannot wait to see McCarthy's face, and now all the McCarthy tapes that leaked probably make a Trump Speaker bid even just a little more likely). They might impeach Biden at least three times to outdo the two impeachments of Trump. What's a more interesting question is whether or not Trump would step down as Speaker if he is also installed back into the presidency. I doubt it ("Trump critics allege that he has trouble relinquishing power"). Seriously, think of the most ridiculously unconstitutional things that you can, and then expect them to happen. He nominates himself for a 10th chair on SCOTUS, to oversee and overrule the rest, if need be ("Super SCOTUS, people are saying. Double Supreme! Can you believe it, like a boss of the other robes, it's kind of, because, excuse me, everybody knows I've always been the best boss ever in the history of bossing.")? The consolidation of all three branches of government into a single man is hilarious ("Look, folks, I check myself. My checks never bounce, and I have very good balance! So checks and balances, really, it's worked out, the founding fathers didn't have a Trump at the time, or else, right away, they would know to do this.")